State Names

Jaune Quick-To-See Smith, State Names, 2000, oil, collage and mixed media on canvas, 48 x 72 in. (121.9 x 182.9 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Elizabeth Ann Dugan and museum purchase, 2004.28

Artwork Details

Title: State Names
Artist: Jaune Quick-To-See Smith
Date: 2000
Location: Not on view
Dimensions: 48 x 72 in. (121.9 x 182.9 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of Elizabeth Ann Dugan and museum purchase
Mediums Description: oil, collage and mixed media on canvas
Classifications: Painting
Highlights: Native and Indigenous Art
Subjects: Object — written matter — map
Landscape — United States
Object Number: 2004.28
Linked Open Data: https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/2004.28

Artwork Description

Dripping paint and newspaper clippings obscure a map of North America in State Names. The only names left visible are those that stem from indigenous sources. The collaged layers act as sequences of time, partially eclipsing the past while highlighting the injustices endured by Native Americans throughout history. Through her use of iconic shapes formed with clippings from newspapers, including the New York Times and Char-Koosta--her reservation's newspaper--Jaune Quick-to-See Smith's work challenges our notions of heritage, identity, and history.

Works by this artist (40 items)

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lithograph

(Memories, portfolio) Fannie

Artist

Raphael Soyer

Date1969

color lithograph

Still-Life

Artist

Raphael Soyer

Date1928

oil on canvas

(Standing Nude)

Artist

Raphael Soyer

Daten.d.

pen and sepia ink on paper

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An interview with the artist Jaune Quick-to-See Smith. Jaune Quick-To-See Smith grew up on the Flathead Reservation in Montana and traveled around the Pacific Northwest and California with her father, who was a horse trader. Smith decided she wanted to be an artist after watching a film on the French painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. She painted a goatee on her face with axle grease and borrowed a neighbor's beret so she could be photographed posing as the famous artist. In 1958, Smith enrolled at Olympic College in Bremerton, Washington. She had to take many breaks from college in order to earn money, however, and didn't earn her degree until 1976. She moved to Albuquerque, where she studied at the University of New Mexico and founded the Grey Canyon group of contemporary Native American artists. (Postmodern Messenger, Exhibition Catalogue, 2004)